The Boy and the Heron will no longer be Hayao Miyazaki’s last movie, according to Studio Ghibli Vice President Junichi Nishioka.
According to a tweet posted by reporter Eli Glasner, per Crunchy Roll, Nishioka has said The Boy and the Heron, which was previously believed to be Miyazaki’s last movie, won’t actually be the Spirited Away director’s swan song.
It’s unclear whether Miyazaki intends to direct a full-length feature or a short following The Boy and the Heron; however, according to Nishioka, the director already has “new ideas” regarding what he wants to do next.
The Boy and the Heron is headed to the United States
The Boy and the Heron was released in theaters in Japan in July 2023. Studio Ghibli released no trailers, images, synopses, or other information about the movie prior to that, though the company has now put out a short teaser trailer and a vague synopsis. It reads:
“The Boy and the Heron
A young boy named Mahito
yearning for his mother
ventures into a world shared by the living and the dead.
There, death comes to an end,
and life finds a new beginning.
A semi-autobiographical fantasy
about life, death, and creation,
in tribute to friendship,
from the mind of Hayao Miyazaki”
Marking Miyazaki’s first feature since 2013’s The Wind Rises, The Boy and the Heron is produced by Toshio Suzuki and features a musical score by Joe Hisaishi. The movie held its international premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 7, 2023, and is headed to the New York Film Festival in the coming weeks.
The Boy and the Heron will begin playing in the United States with special preview engagements on November 22, 2023, before it goes wide on December 8, 2023. It will be released in both Japanese (with English subtitles) and English.
